Joshua Cox

This past summer REL Northeast & Islands had the opportunity to apply an innovative data analysis method--natural language processing--to inform remote teaching at Boston Public Schools in the fall. REL staff used the method to analyze teacher survey responses about the transition to remote learning in the spring. The approach reduced the amount of time needed for data analysis and could prove a promising method for examining open-ended survey data in the field of education when speed is esse...

New federal guidance under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to construct a school accountability model that includes an indicator for school quality or student success. Some states and local education agencies are using flexibility under this new requirement to develop and track students' social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. Yet school and district leaders across the Northeast and Islands region--and indeed the nation--are struggling with the task of selecting evid...